08/29/2007 11:14:25 AM PDT
· 7 of 7 SeenTheLight
to Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
In the case of “Alms for Jihad” the publisher was British (Cambridge U. Press), so bin Mafhouz threatened to sue (didn’t actually have to go through with it-—they caved) them, not the author.
As far as Rachel Ehrenfeld’s book, bin Mahfouz’ suit in the UK alleged that British readers could order it on the internet, etc (actually only 23 copies ever made it to the UK) and so it was fair game.
But her countersuit here in the U.S. aims to change all that and set the precedent that American authors are protected from foreign libel suits by the First Amendment.
There was also a scandal about Al-Hurra (the U.S. run Arabic TV station) because it ran a speech by Hezbollah thug-in-chief Hassan Nasrallah. At this rate, we’ve got a long way to go to catch up in the propaganda battle...